RMI2 preps for new space

RMI2 preps for new space
Colorado
By: PAT FERRIER
Published: June 17th, 2009
Website Article

Within the next 18 months, the northeast corner of Vine Drive and North College Avenue will house the city's business incubator designed to support new companies and jobs in Fort Collins.

The property - the old Waste Management site - will become home to the Inverness Innovation Park primarily housing the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative, or RMI2, and other technology-based businesses.

The City Council last week gave its blessing to the $7.1 million project and agreed to loan RMI2 $5.3 million to build the facility.

Because the land appraisal came in lower than expected, developer Mike agreed to include more land for the original $520,533 purchase price.

The proposed 31,000-square-foot, three-story building will move to the west side of the property, giving RMI2 enough room for another building with a 15,000-square-foot footprint, said Jensen, of Urban Development Partners, which is developing the tract.

Mark Forsyth, director of RMI2, said the additional land assures RMI2 will have room to grow.

RMI2 doesn't have a specific plan for the additional land, Forsyth said, but with the increasing interest in innovation, "we felt it was in our best interest for the future."

RMI2 is reviewing 14 applications for new companies, Forsyth said, enough to easily fill the new building along with its existing businesses.

RMI2 businesses are now spread across city buildings throughout Fort Collins. The city will add a fourth building in the next couple weeks to allow RMI2 to expand its members even before the building is ready, Forsyth said.

Once the new building is up, most of RMI2's members will move there, freeing up the city offices for sale or other uses.

"There are quite a number of new companies looking for support. We are feeling more confident we can use all that space," he said.

Now that the city has provided the loan for RMI2, Jensen will work on getting city approval of the overall development plan, and Forsyth's team will work on designing the building.

Demolition of some existing buildings likely will begin by the end of the year, Jensen said, with a completion deadline for RMI2 at the end of 2010.

"This is a big and important project," Jensen said. "It took a lot of patience and working together and collaborating. It's always good to get a deal done, especially when it's a challenging time to get deals done," he said.

The new building will mean a lot for existing incubator companies, said John Kisiday, co-founder of Advanced Regenerative Therapies, or ART, an 18-month-old RMI2 company that provides a stem-cell isolation and expansion service for companion animals.

ART will gain wet lab space it currently lacks. "Something like a sink would have been handy," said Kisiday, who founded the company with a group of Colorado State University researchers.

"That's not to say we haven't done great in the present facilities, but it will be a better draw for other companies, and we'll feel more comfortable with lab space, and that's certainly what people will be looking to occupy."